Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

As the year draws to a close, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is looking back at the major trends influencing digital rights in 2013 and discussing where we are in the fight for free expression, innovation, fair use, and privacy.

In a region where censorship is the norm, Morocco has always stood out for its nominally free press, and mostly free Internet. But in the past year, that freedom has been repeatedly challenged.

A UN approved privacy resolution is aimed at upholding the right to privacy for everyone at a time when the United States and the United Kingdom have been conducting sweeping mass surveillance on billions of innocent individuals around the world from domestic soil.

IFEX members strongly condemn recent attacks on journalists during public demonstrations in Kyiv and call for those responsible to be held accountable.

Following the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determination that Vietnamese human rights lawyer Le Quoc Quan’s detention is illegal, 12 NGOs issued a joint appeal to the authorities calling for his immediate release.

Sitting on the wire, the NSA has the ability to track and make a record of every website you visit. The Huffington Post has revealed that the NSA is using this incredible power to track who visits online porn websites, and to use this information to discredit those it deems dangerous.

EFF strongly supports the formation of student groups like the Digital Freedom Group at Iowa State University that aim to discuss and learn about methods for the secure and private use of the Internet.

The Beastie Boys have unleashed the legal hounds to shut down a parody ad that uses the group’s classic misogynistic ditty, “Girls”. As remix pioneers, the Beastie Boys are the veterans of many legal battles against copyright maximalists. The Beastie Boys aren’t copyright bullies, they fight those bullies. Right?